Chains
by 8Clarify8
Summary: She left by her own choice, lives by her own terms, and plays by her own rules. She didn't choose the life she has now, it was a matter of circumstance really- she needed the credits and Ventress offered. And now quite a few years later she hasn't gotten out of the Bounty Hunting game just yet, though somethings just need to be given up. Takes place after order 66.
1. Chapter 1

**Chains**

**Ahsoka /Cad Bane relationship**

**Ventress / Ahsoka friendship**

**Rating: **T/M

**Chains**

The small and lithe shadow figure moved through the dark alleyways of the lower levels of Coruscant as their cloak billowed behind them. They slipped into one of the rooms of the shady motel down the street from the seedy club and bar.

They lifted up a tightly curled fist and knocked onto the door. A voice on the other side of the door answered:

"Little Pet told she would kill whom mercifully?"

"The Hairless Harpy." The other voice mumbled lowly, glancing around the empty hallway.

The door opened and the figure outside slipped in and discarded the cloak; Ahsoka Tahno stood in front of her mutual partner, Ventress. The cloak fell in a clump on the floor by Ahsoka's heavy boot clad feet.

"Were you followed?" Ventress asked as the room was bathed in glowing light by a passing cruiser for a fleeting moment.

"No," the almost-fully matured Togruta woman said as she moved her right head-tail back into place as it brushed against her hip annoyingly. The loose fitting clothing not justifying her regal appearance as she cocked her hip to the side and placed her hand on it. "I would've sensed them by now. How did your part of the plan go?" She said, glancing to the slumped and bound body in the corner that was still in a forced slumber.

"Well. There are enough credits in both of our pockets and if we turn him in there will be even more. The Ship is ready I presume?" Ventress asked without looking at her partner, her attention was better grasped by something across the way that came out of the bar.

"Yes, give me another hour or so and we can move out of here. We spent too long in one place with no allies."

"Good, good… Stay close to the shadows, and don't get caught… There are a few unwelcomed guests in the area…" Ventress said distastefully, like the words were bitter tasting and poison on her tongue.

"How so?" Ahsoka clasped the cloak around her neck and drew the hood back up.

"Empire scouts." Ventress' lips curled up in a sneer and Ahsoka's heart stuttered in her chest as she heard this.

Oh she knew what happened, she knew exactly what happened. How Anakin went wild and slaughtered all the younglings as the Clones turned on their Jedi leaders.

All of them, dead.

Obi-Wan had found her a year back, sat her down with a drink, and told her that she was fortunate that she left when she did- if she hadn't denounced her affiliation with the Jedi council, Rex would've come and killed her too. It was by pure luck alone that Obi-Wan, Mace Win-Du, Yoda, and very few others made it out at all let alone alive.

He presented her with a baby girl and explained how Anakin and Padme had twins, the son was back on Anakin's home planet while he was trying to find a suitable home for the small girl. He offered her to Ahsoka, but the young woman merely raised an eyebrow then and showed him the bounty she had on her own head.

"The business isn't easy, and I don't want to subject that child into it, either." Was her only reply.

Obi-Wan nodded in understanding and waved goodbye to her and a half-hearted promise that they would stay in contact.

The memory was quick but the hatred she felt was still there, she frowned and patted the credits in her pocket and the lightsaber and gun in the other.

"I'll radio you when the ship is done. You know the one I found-"

"The PTX-R 45 with a lower level docking bay?"

"Exactly."

"Find a few droids while you're at it," Ventress threw some more credits in Ahsoka's direction and she easily caught them out of thin air. "Medical, an R3 or R4 unit, perhaps a translation droid, and one to pilot for us. I have a few ideas what can be used for in the docking bay."

Ahsoka grinned from under her hood- not cheesy or eager: predatory, and amusemed. She slipped out of the hotel room easily and the door shut silently.

She liked working with Ventress, really she did. She did not trust her though.

And in turn Ventress didn't trust her back. Though if she would rather have anyone in her room at night and know they most likely wouldn't kill her in her sleep, it would be Ahsoka, and that had to count for something.

The figure in the corner groaned lowly into their gag, and with Ventress right beside them she kicked them in the side with her heeled boot. They coughed and sputtered into the gag before passing out again in a drug induced haze. She stared down at the motionless form for a few more seconds before returning her gaze to the outside world behind cheap blinds and glass.

"This work is never easy." She grumbled to herself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chains**

**Ahsoka /Cad Bane relationship**

**Ventress / Ahsoka friendship**

**Rating: **T/M

**Chains**

Chapter 2:

Ahsoka slipped through the shadows with a practiced ease, staying close to the walls and blending in easily with the crowd as they trudged through out the streets. She held her breath and kept her head down so the cover of her hood hid her face as her eyes trailed the Storm Troopers shoes as they walked in the opposite direction.

Before they were her friends, her comrades, brothers in arms, and her troops. Now?

They were the enemy, and if they saw her they would kill her, not because she was a previous Jedi Padawn, but because of the massive bounty that was on her head as well as Ventress'.

She needed to be cautious around the flight pit where the ship was currently docked at, if she wasn't careful then she and Ventress would be in very, very deep trouble.

She held her breath again as she slipped around corners and stood against the dark shadows of walls as more clones walked the streets.

As soon as their backs were turned to her she took off with a speed that wasn't capable to anyone without using the force and she arrived in front of the ship within a few short seconds. Her cloak flew up around her legs for a moment before settling back down. She glared at a few leaches who snooped around her ship.

She barred her sharp incisors and growled low in her throat as she grasped the hilt of her gun.

They should really leave her ship alone.

Ventress stayed in the room, drumming her long and slender fingers against her leg that was propped up on a chair. She aimed her gun at a person walking by and pretended to shoot them down and how blood would pool around their still form.

She grinned to herself and put her gun back in place before she actually acted out on her fantasy.

Staying in and playing babysitter wasn't exactly her deal of a "good day," or a "good time," but work was work and this had to be done.

If the bounty they had had gotten away, who knows what type of hell they would be put through.

She looked down again at the groggy figure as they moaned into their gag and pulled on their bindings before relaxing again. She sneered at the pathetic form before glancing outside again.

A slight rustling movement and Ventress spun around quick enough for a swift kick in the face that sent her hard against the wall and the blinds to be crushed by her arm and the window to shake. She wiped the dirt and blood trail off her face and bared her teeth as the bounty moved groggily in front of her, they swayed as they moved towards the door.

She took a small knife out of her pouch that was clipped to the belt around her waist that held her own lightsabers and gun.

She lunged for the bounty and kicked them down, her heeled boot digging into their back. They grunted in pain at her boot on their back and then were silenced as she pricked the knife into their neck.

The tranquilizer worked fast as their body relaxed against the floor.

She glared at the bounty and kicked their side once she knew they were out cold.

"Dammit, always a pain in my ass." She picked the person up and threw them hard on the bed, they bounced off and landed on the floor.

"Pet, are you ready?" Ventress said into her communicator, a special kind that only linked hers and Ahsoka's together, still they never used their real names. Just to be safe.

"Almost," she replied as a grunt followed soon after "just taking care of a side project."

"Side project? Hurry it up, the Bounty is getting restless and almost tried to escape. I want to leave this damn place in less than two hours."

"Bring the Bounty down in half an hour and you go find your droids, I'll look after him while you finish your shopping and we'll leave when you get back."

Ventress ended the transmission and looked at the crumpled body on the floor.

She sneered at them again.

"Pathetic piece of trash."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chains**

**Ahsoka /Cad Bane relationship**

**Ventress / Ahsoka friendship**

**Rating: **T/M

**Chains**

**(Chapter 3)**

Ventress dragged the bounty along as their head was down, they stumbled into a passing alien and the creature turned and glared at the swaying man.

The alien huffed and turned away when Ventress glared at the alien in warning.

She dragged the pathetic and drugged creature along when she saw she was wasting time trying to navigate the crowd. His mumbles were incoherent as is and she sighed in irritation.

It was worse than taking care of a toddler, only she could beat this one.

Yes, yes… Beat him.

Ventress shook her head and quickly made her way to the docking bay where Ahsoka was crawled up inside the paneling of the ship doing something-or-other.

"Pet, you should've taken a job fixing ships for a living instead of venturing around the universe with me."

Ahsoka stuck her oil covered cowl out from under the bottom of the raised ship and moved her dirt covered goggles from around her eyes and blinked owlishly at her partner.

"Maybe it'll be my retirement plan." She crawled out from under the ship and moved her goggles to around her neck and led her partner and their bounty inside the ship.

"You get him situated and I want my credits back to buy us a few droids; I should be back within two hours." Ahsoka took the bounty's bindings and threw the credits back at Asajj. Ahsoka led the bounty up to the first storage hold on the second floor of the ship and towards the back as Ventress drew her hood up and headed out.

Ahsoka drew the Bounty's hood back and looked at his dazed face. He drooled from the side of his mouth.

"Aia." Ahsoka said, he didn't make a sound, he just blinked his eyes. "Aiiiiiiiaaa." Ahsoka sang as she snapped her fingers in front of his eyes to get him to focus. His lowly lidded eyes moved to her fingers for a moment before his head tilted back to the side.

Ahsoka frowned before locking his bindings into place and closing the door behind her. She made her way back out of the ship and moved to slip under it again, getting ready to fix a broken thruster fuse box.

"Huh?" Ahsoka laid under the ship, looking at a few more broken wires then what she remembered. She frowned, reaching up and starting to put the wires back together, she was almost done when her communicator went off.

_"P-pet."_

Ahsoka glanced at her wrist where her communicator sat, it seemed staticy and it buzzed in and out.

_"F-find the-the…. nty. It's a tr-…. Get out. Now-"_

The communicator cut out then, Ahsoka's heart was beating quickly as she moved from under the ship, running inside and running into the lower docking area where she kept the bounty. He was still there, gagged and tied with a blindfold over his eyes.

Ahsoka ran up to the cockpit, closing all doors and locking them. She got the ship in the air and took off of the lower levels of Coruscant. Flying into the middle ring of the hallow planet before landing the ship again.

"Harpy." Ahsoka pressed into her communicator but only static came through. "Harpy." Ahsoka's heart was beating fast, not in the four years that she's been doing this has a problem like came up. Ventress had always just been there with her, by her side and facing challenges together. She never just told her to get away.

Something was desperately not right.

"Harpy-" Ahsoka pressed into the communicator again but a voice answered this time.

_"'ello? Who is dis? Where is the owner of dis communicator?"_ A nasally and robotic type voice answered her.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out... Meet me in the bar on the 72nd level, by the Snickly's Hotel. There will be a reward for you if you show up and answer some of my questions."

She hoped that she made a convincing enough argument.

_"A reward, you say? I'll be dere."_

"A quarter past 5."

_"A quarter past 5." _

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the late update and crappy chapter, but I needed to update and I honestly forgot where this story is going. Thankfully it's still early enough that it can go in many different directions. **


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